Identifying and protecting nursery habitats for species is a key conservation strategy for the long-term sustainability of populations. In tropical ecosystems, macroalgal habitats have recently been identified as nurseries for fish of commercial and conservation significance. Here, we explore how local-scale variations in seaweed habitat quality interact with large-scale climatic conditions (Southern Oscillation Index, SOI) to influence the recruitment of three tropical fish species (Lethrinusspp.), often targeted by fishers. New fish recruits and juveniles of all species were almost exclusively found in macroalgal nursery habitats, while adults of two of these species were predominantly found on adjacent coral reefs. Annual supply rates of new recruits were found to be strongly correlated to variations in the SOI, with La Nina conditions associated with higher recruitment. However, local rates of recruitment were generally poor predictors of older juvenile abundance. Instead, local juvenile abundance was more closely related to structural characteristics of macroalgae nursery habitat quality (density, canopy height, canopy cover) and/or predator biomass, at the time of survey, with species-specific habitat associations apparent. Given the dynamic nature of fish recruitment supply to the SOI, coupled with the effects of climatic and oceanic processes on the structure of macroalgal patches, these results suggest protection of macroalgal nursery habitats that maintain high canopy density, height and cover is critical to supporting the conservation of fish populations.

Add new comment

Filtered HTML

Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

Each email address will be obfuscated in a human readable fashion or, if JavaScript is enabled, replaced with a spam resistent clickable link. Email addresses will get the default web form unless specified. If replacement text (a persons name) is required a webform is also required. Separate each part with the "|" pipe symbol. Replace spaces in names with "_".

Plain text

No HTML tags allowed.

Each email address will be obfuscated in a human readable fashion or, if JavaScript is enabled, replaced with a spam resistent clickable link. Email addresses will get the default web form unless specified. If replacement text (a persons name) is required a webform is also required. Separate each part with the "|" pipe symbol. Replace spaces in names with "_".

CAPTCHA

This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Share your research in MarXiv: the free research repository for the ocean and marine-climate sciences

Ocean managers, policymakers, and NGOs routinely face barriers to scientific knowledge: they simply can't afford costly subscriptions to traditional academic journals. Studies have found that these financial barriers result in less primary science being used in on-the-ground environmental management plans.

MarXiv offers a way to increase access to pay-walled academic literature in a legal manner. An author who retains copyright on their submitted manuscript, known colloquially as a preprint, may upload the manuscript to MarXiv. Anyone may then download and read the preprint free of charge, legally, forever. No more time wasted begging the author for a copy, and no need to "pirate" the research in a not-so-legal manner.

But MarXiv isn't just for preprints! You can deposit your group's technical reports and Open Access publications, as well. Deposit your report in MarXiv to get a free DOI, a long-term storage solution, and ensure your work is indexed in Google Scholar.